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- May 21, 203175% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
Annular Solar Eclipse Crosses Angola
- Greatest eclipse of the Annular Solar Eclipse of 2031 May 21 falls at 07:14:46.5 UT at 08°55.7'N 071°44.4'E, with the Sun 78.7° high, a path 152.2 km wide and a central duration of 05m25.5s[1]
- Annularity is longest at the point of Greatest Duration, 07:23:11 UT at 09°19'N 073°48'E, where the path is 152.7 km wide and the central duration reaches 05m26.1s[1][3]
- The path of annularity crosses Angola, Congo, Zambia, Tanzania, southern India, Malaysia and Indonesia, while the partial eclipse is visible across Africa, southern Asia, the East Indies and Australia[2]
- The eclipse belongs to Saros series 138, with eclipse magnitude 0.9589 (0.959 in the decade table), gamma -0.1970, path width 152 km and central duration 05m26s; both catalogues give greatest eclipse in Terrestrial Dynamical Time as 07:16:04, the same instant as the source's 07:14:46.5 UT given ΔT = 77.6 seconds[1][2][4]
- The source page tabulates the antumbral shadow at 120-second intervals in WGS 84 coordinates over 116 printed lines running from 05:22 to 09:08 Universal Time; the path is 205 km wide at its western limit (16°48.8'S 015°23.6'E, 03m48.7s) and 208 km at its eastern limit (04°39.0'S 130°09.6'E, 03m52.8s)[1]
- Saros 138 runs 1244.08 years across 70 eclipses (50 annular, 16 partial, 3 total, 1 hybrid, sequence "7P 50A 1H 3T 9P"), from a partial eclipse on 1472 Jun 06 to a partial eclipse on 2716 Jul 11, all at the Moon's descending node[4]
- Predictions were generated using the VSOP87/ELP2000-85 solar and lunar ephemerides with ΔT = 77.6 seconds and exclude the lunar limb profile; limb corrections may shift the path limits by ~1-3 kilometers, change durations by ~1-3 seconds and move the exact location of Greatest Duration by ~10-20 kilometers, with more detailed predictions "normally posted 12-18 months before each eclipse"[1][3]
- All the calculations are by Fred Espenak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, who "assumes full responsibility for their accuracy"[1][2][3][4]
References 483% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]75%eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2031May21Apath.htmleclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov· Posted Sep 20, 2026· Starts May 21, 2031 ✓· 25% of score
NASA's[2][3][4] eclipse catalogue gives the instant of greatest eclipse as 07:14:46 UT on 2031-05-21 (07:16:04 TD, the two separated by delta-T), from Saros series 138. Eclipse circumstances are computed from orbital mechanics, so the date and time are exact centuries ahead.
- [2]85%Solar Eclipses: 2031 - 2040eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov· Added Sep 20, 2026· 25% of score
NASA’s[1][3][4] decade table, the only one of these pages that names places: its row for 2031 May 21 gives "[Annular: Angola, Congo, Zambia, Tanzania, s. India, Malaysia, Indonesia]" and the region of visibility as "Africa, s Asia, E. Indies, Australia".
- [3]90%Annular Solar Eclipse of 2031-05-21 - Google map of the patheclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov· Added Sep 20, 2026· 25% of score
NASA's[1][2][4] interactive map of this eclipse, showing the central path, the points of greatest eclipse and greatest duration, and local circumstances anywhere on the map.
- [4]80%Saros series 138eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov· Added Sep 20, 2026· 25% of score
The saros series this eclipse belongs to, listing every eclipse in the same 18-year family and where each one fell.[1]
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